Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, had made a controversial remark on the issue of death penalty for rapists, and emphasized on the point that, if voted to power his party would bring changes in the existing rape laws.

Yadav had said that boys make mistake
(of raping a girl), and for that they should not be hanged. This
statement by Yadav went viral and he was on the receiving end of
criticism from all walks of the life. Be it politicians, social
workers, women rights activists; everyone demanded an apology from SP
chief.

In UP, voting is over for around 10 Lok
Sabha seats. Still there are 70 seats for which elections are to be
held. In such scenario, is Mulayam Singh's controversial statement
going to backfire on his party as there are voters especially women
and youths who have not at all liked his favorable remark against
rapists.

In
Focus

Is Mulayam Singh Yadav too immature
that he can make such controversial statement or he did it on
purpose?

Dr. Vivek Kumar, Professor of sociology
at Jawaharlal Nehru University said, "Mulayam is a very streak and
smart politician, the constituency from where he hails does not think
of rational or irrational, so this statement won't effect them. But
with this statement he was trying to please the Muslim dominated
communities."

He also added, "As the statement was
in context of the Shakti mill rape case, where one of the convicts
was a Muslim and this remark by him will increase his Muslim vote
bank. He doesn't care about what the elite class and the educated
people are thinking about him, he only looks for his profit."

Sudha Sundararaman, Secretary General
of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), is annoyed by
such a mischievous remark by Mulayam Singh Yadav. She has piece of
advise for the women voters in UP that they should not vote for any
such party which compromises their security.

"The political parties are playing a
kind of communal intent over there ( in UP) and the women voters,
should look through the masks the parties are wearing and should vote
for the right person, the one who will not compromise with women
safety."

She also emphasized on the point of
'false complaints' and said, "He is saying that the women are
misusing the law by filing false complaints, but he does not know the
fact that still there are many rape cases which are not registered,
just because the victim is afraid to lodge a complaint."

Sudhir Panwar, a political science
professor from Lucknow University has to say that Mulayam's statement
will impact his party in a negative manner.

He said, "Mulayam's statement has two
parts, the first part is that 'the new law on rape is being misused
by many and should be revised', this is something which most of the
people in the society are agreeing with, but the second part where he
said that 'rape is not a serious crime and people should not be
hanged for it', is wrong and this statement can bring a negative
impact to the party."